David Lynch's influence on video games runs deeper than Twin Peaks.

There was an outpouring of sadness following the announcement of David Lynch's death on January 15 at the age of 78. Sam LakePresent Hidetaka “SWEY” SuehiroAnd Pacific Drive developer Ironwood Studios. Some of these aren't that surprising; For many in both gaming and the broader world of pop culture, Twin Peaks looms large as a cultural milestone and point of influence. The third season of the series, Twin Peaks: the returnThe wider generation interpreted Lynch's world when it first premiered in 2017, bringing them into his unique universe across 18 amazing episodes of television.

Cataloging Twin Peaks'Influence on gaming alone would be discouraging. There aren't just the obvious examples of the spooky Pacific Northwest range Alan Wake and aggressively Twin Peaks-inspired premise by Deadly premonitionThere are several other games that are indebted to the dream logic of Lynch's work, from well-known titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening to dark Japanese games like 1998's Mizzurna falls and 1995 D. But to cook Lynch down Twin Peaks – As obvious and important as this series is – it misses quite a bit of his art. David Lynch was more than just “damn good coffee” and girls wrapped in plastic: through clever, booming audio and menacing cinematography, he created worlds unlike anything seen in reality, so completely his own that his Name became synonymous with The Dark The surrealism of everyday life that so many other artists have tried to undress to this day.

Perhaps no other games have captured the tone of David Lynch's work as successfully as the first three entries in the Silent Hill series. On the surface, of course, there is the soundtrack: industrial clinks and strums, deep booming bass tones, the crackle of static and electricity from a radio. But most Lynchian of all is the series' defining concept of the Otherworld. Of course, there's the depiction of gritty industrial environments (probably inspired by Lynch's feature debut Eraserhead), but more than that. It's the idea that there are alternative realities or even alternative people.

Silent Hill 2 Director Masashi Tsuboyama detailed Like Lynch's film Lost highway inspired the creation of dual characters Mary and Maria. This film follows a man named Fred Madison, played by Bill Pullman, who kills his wife, only to suddenly become a completely different person, encountering a version of her that appears to be the exact opposite of the woman we saw on saw the beginning. If that sounds familiar, it should. Silent Hill 2The protagonist, James Sunderland, essentially becomes two people over the course of the game: his guilty self and the sexually violent punisher known as the Pyramid Head. This doubling of the narrative is also most famously present in Mulholland Drivewhere Naomi Watts' character Betty appears as a naive ingénue at the beginning and a worn-out, tortured woman at the end, while the idea of ​​mirrored characters is arguably in the present Blue velvet as well as.

It's not just these more explicit references that make silent Hill So Lynchian. The first game notably has the same stilted quality in its dialogue, which is present in Lynch's films as well Eraserhead And Lost highway. Harry Mason often sounds like he's wandering through a dream, unsure of how to even react to the strange events that occur before him. More than any other game series, Silent Hill is particularly drenched in symbolism in its early entries, be it the layered sexual references and female monsters of female monsters Silent Hill 2 or the frightening parts of blossoming femininity that are present throughout Silent Hill 3. Throughout the Silent Hill series, the Otherworld is essentially constructed from the psyche of a specific person in each game's world, similar to how Mulholland Drive or Lost highway are partly built around the psyches of their characters, whether they're actively dreaming or simply trying to ignore the darker parts of themselves.

And then there is the city. Twin Peaks may get all the attention for exposing the dark heart of suburbia, but Lynch arguably came along much sooner Blue velvet's signature opening scene, in which a quiet and idyllic small town encounters a medical emergency for the first time – along with a distinctly phallic water spray – as the camera dives beneath the ground to reveal the insects crawling beneath the rot. Even more than silent HillPresent Alan Wake is almost directly inspired by Lynch, with the second entry taking the comparisons even further with direct structural similarities The return (And of course the Pacific Northwest of it all). Alan Wake 2 However, co-writer and co-director Sam Lake aren't content with just ripping off the quirk and location. The character Alan Wake himself gets what is essentially a “tulpa” – an otherworldly doppelganger reminiscent of Dale Cooper Twin Peaks: the return – in addition to the FBI comes to the city in various degrees and interferes.

But Alan Wake 2, similar to Silent Hill, understands that the hallmark of Lynch's work is the ability to suddenly shift tones from the goofy to the eerie, be it the darkness that falls over the city or the shifts the player causes that turn a benign hotel room into a bloody crime scene transformed. Of course there is also the use of negative space and silence, which throws the player into a feeling of discomfort, with the architecture of the fake New York being seen in Alan Wake 2The dark place that gives the feeling of a place that was before but isn't quite right. More than anything, although Lynchian works often feature distinct flourishing soundscapes, just as important are the things that not there: an empty hallway; a camera panning over a guest room; the darkness of the highway strip. In a David Lynch film, sound often blends into the background and becomes another part of an unease you can't shake.

Games like that control or Went home Understand closely, although they may not be horror or explicitly pulling from Lynch, when they clearly save a few references like the FBI or the Pacific Northwest. For the latter in particular, there are the stray sounds of static or thunder, the completely silent and empty house you wander through as you uncover the cracks in a seemingly “normal” American family, including the suggestion of sexual abuse. The former creates this discomfort through the use of darkness and lighting, which often features abandoned rooms with people floating in thin air. Even something like limbo carries shades of EraserheadWith its muted color scheme that eventually devolves into an industrial wasteland and a story heavy on symbolism that refuses to give neat answers to what you're doing or why.

Video games owe a lot to the influence of David Lynch, whether it's something as simple as that as being able to perceive that which cannot be seen or A snakeskin jacket that symbolizes individuality and belief in personal freedom. With an ever-growing focus on cinematic experiences and inspiration from film and television, we can even get a truly Lynchian game, whether it's survival horror or something completely unexpected. Twin Peaks And The return It may have attracted more attention for obvious reasons (it wouldn't be very fun to simulate the experience of a Victorian man with a severe facial deformity, and there isn't an open-world tractor driving game a la The straight story) But Lynch's aesthetic and thematic concerns still rage thanks to the indelible impact his work left on the genre of horror itself. That gum you like has always been in style, and as long as these streets grind forever, so will the memory of David Lynch.

Twin Peaks is available to stream on Paramount Plus. Twin Peaks: the return is available for Showtime. Lost highwayPresent Mulholland DriveAnd Eraserhead are available to stream on Criterion Channel. Blue velvet is available to stream on Max. The straight story is available to stream on Disney Plus.